In recent years, daily analytical throughput in one analyzer tends to increase, and also does the number of analyzable test items required for one analyzer. With the increases in analytical throughput and in the number of test items, there are increasing tendencies in the quantities and kinds of reagents to be set in the analyzer. As a result, it is requested that a larger number of reagent cassettes be set in the device and that the set reagent cassettes be used more efficiently.
Methods for setting a larger number of reagent cassettes in a device and using these reagent cassettes more efficiently include known techniques that employ a plurality of reagent buffers.
For example, firstly, an automated analyzer with a main reagent buffer and a subsidiary reagent buffer is known (refer to Patent Document 1, for example). In this known automated analyzer, a reagent cassette in which a residual amount of usable reagent has become too small for analysis is removed from the main reagent buffer, then another reagent cassette transferred from the subsidiary reagent buffer is set in the vacancy.
Secondly, an automated analyzer with a plurality of reagent buffers and a reagent pipetter disposed for each of the reagent buffers is known (refer to Patent Document 2, for example).